Acknowledgements

Lynne Coulson Barr:
Hello, I’m Lynne Coulson Barr. I’m Victoria’s Mental Health Complaints Commissioner.
The MHCC was created under the Mental Health Act 2014. That reform sought to put people really at the centre of their treatment and care.
The MHCC is an independent specialist complaints body. Their key role is dealing with complaints about public mental health services. In doing so, we’re part of the safeguards of the Act.
We also have a role in helping services to develop effective responses to complaints, and to use information from complaints to inform service improvements.
Every public mental health service is required under the Act to have a process for dealing with complaints, and we also expect services to create environments and cultures where people feel confident and safe to raise their concerns.
Our approach is to try and resolve complaints in a way that supports the person’s recovery, but also looks at ways in which the service can be improved for that person and for others.
Anyone can make a complaint. People can make a complaint about any aspect of public mental health services that they’re receiving. So it can be accessing services or it can be any aspect of their experience. So we work with them in terms of what they understand the issues to be and what are the options to resolve the complaint. It’s really about their right to speak out.
When a person contacts the MHCC they should firstly expect that they’ll be listened to. The MHCC is really trying to get people to have a new way of thinking about complaints. The complaints are really about people’s experiences, and complaints are a way of improving services and supporting people’s recovery.
§ (Music Playing) §
[End of Transcript]